Riley is a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. A huge name for a wonderful little dog.

The King Charles Spaniel (non-Cavalier) is smaller and has a much flatter or more pug-like face. In the '20s the King Charles was bred back to its original size and look and given the Calvalier addition to its name.

For an unforgettable wildlife experience, I highly recommend the Elkhorn Slough Safari in Moss Landing. We saw over one hundred sea otters, almost eighty harbor seals and dozens of sea lions very up close and personal.

This photo shows a raft of about eighty sea otters. Raft is the official label for a bunch of otters hanging out together, looking like a raft.

In addition to sea mammals, I also photographed sixteen species of birds. The trip was two hours of wildlife bliss. There were a few other bird species I got to see, but they were too distant for me to get a good photo of them.

It was beautiful day in Santa Cruz and I had been photographing the sea lions when this pelican landed a few feet away on the pier railing.

If there was ever a compelling visual argument for birds being the modern descendants of dinosaurs, it's the pelican. I could easily imagine them flying just out of reach above the snapping jaws of some aquatic sea monster.

Brandt's cormorants were the most numerous of the three species of cormorants seen that day. The slender white plumes on its face and the blue patch on its throat only appear during breeding season. The red color seen in this photo is not part of the cormorant but was from a nearby pelican.

The Eared Grebe is a very small bird compared to the Western and Clark's Grebes. Only 13 inches long compared to the other bird's 25 inches. I hope to photograph one in breeding plumage someday because that look is quite different from their winter look seen here.

Sea Otters appeared to spend a great deal of their time grooming themselves. They use their bodies as tables, so have to keep food scraps washed off. While they clean, they also push and sometimes blow air bubbles into their fur. The extra air trapped in their fur contributes to their buoyancy and increases insulation.

To our left as we exited the harbor and entered the slough, we saw an old pier covered with sea lions. We slowly motored past them. It was quite satisfying to be at their level and so close to them. I feel like I ended up with a family portrait instead of a wildlife photo.

I have always wanted to photograph a bumblebee
with flowers and this was my lucky day. My camera and lens together weighed about five pounds and I had been out for a couple of hours before I came across this bee. I followed him for a while and then finally grabbed the opportunity to get this photo.

Nature composed this shot perfectly, I just cropped a little off the right side. The amazing thing to me is that it is in focus!

This photo shows a chickadee that had gathered some fuzzy material for its nest. Chickadees are quite active birds who don't usually pose as nicely as this one did for me. It actually held still for more than three seconds.

This killdeer tried to lure me away from her nest and eggs fluttering her wings as if injured. Ironically, the only reason I knew her nest was nearby was because of the mother killdeer's behavior. She faked being hurt and then looked back to see if I was buying it.

These conjoined damselflies are a mated pair and stay connected like this until the eggs are laid. Both damselflies seen here are bright blue so this may be a "gay" pairing as documented in National Geographic.

The coot is a common bird found just about everywhere there is fresh water. The coot is not a duck but a rail. It doesn't have the typical flat bill of a duck and its feet are quite different, not webbed but lobed.

I grew up to know this bird as the Oregon Junco with it's rufous flanks and black hood. Then I later learned it is really a Dark-eyed Junco and the Oregon Junco is a subspecies. This species of Juncos is too large a group to be a subspecies so debate still goes on, but to me they will always be Oregon Juncos.

The Wilson's Warbler from yesterdays posting, viewed from a different angle, showed that it had been banded. The silver band was numbered and was issued by US Fish & Wildlife, the colored bands had letters and were issued by research groups. Each number and color could be used to access a database for info about that specific bird.

Western Pond Turtles sunned themselves on a log in Jewel Lake. The leading turtle on the log however was a Red Slider. Perhaps a pet released after the owners became bored with it or the turtle became too big to remain cute.

Red-eared Sliders are an invasive species native to the Southern US. After they became common household pets they started showing up in Western states as well. Released in the wild they were "able to hybridize with native turtles damaging the integrity of the native species and introducing new pathogens to native animals."

Imagine a charcoal colored bird that landed in a birdbath filled with indigo-blue Easter Egg dye.
That's the Stellar's Jay. But in bright sunlight, the normally charcoal top
of the Stellar's Jay appears brown.

We encountered a pod of Bottlenose Dolphins on our return from a cruise around part of Anacapa Island in the Santa Barbara Channel . Some were leaping ahead and to the side of us while others raced with us.

I was not able to get many usable photographs. The dolphins were so very fast and you never know where they will appear. The ones racing alongside the boat were amazing, but I didn't have the equipment to film them. Here is a link to bow riding dolphins that shows exactly what I saw:

There are hundreds of sea lions on Anacapa Island. This group was on the side of the island that faced the mainland, but the majority of them were on the other side facing the sea, which we did see a few minutes later.

The Santa Barbara zoo called this giraffe a Baringo giraffe. It was originally named the Rothschild giraffe and now sometimes called the Ugandan giraffe. No matter its name, it is a threatened species of giraffe.